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Friday, May 17, 2013

Bean Bag Makeover! Revamped old bean bag chair!

I might be the world's worst mother! Ok, well maybe that's an exaggeration, and hopefully I made up for my slacking tendencies today.

Back in October I redid my son's room in Army/Camo decor. I recovered his bean bag (quite badly I might add), and ever since then my daughter has been begging me like every week to recover hers in zebra print. I bought the fabric back in October to do hers, and oopsie, its taking me this long to do it. Hey, I have had a lot of projects; hers was on the bottom of my priority list.

Ok, so this fabric is fleece, its actually two blankets from Walmart. I got them for only $2.88. When I saw them, I did a happy dance, because I knew I had just saved my self about $20. Fleece is usually $10 a yard.

Now this is not super thick, but I am ok with that! Its to cover up her old bean bag, not to be used as a blanket. With that I might add, if you ever see a cute pattern on a blanket at Walmart or any store for that matter, and its really cheap, get it. Even if you don't have a project in mind, snag it!

I have done a few projects from blankets. It doesn't have to be fleece. I love it too when they clearance their patterned bed sheets. Sheets are a lot of yards, and that = saving money.

Ok, moving on...

First, if you have a piece of card board or a poster board then free hand on one side of the board, a wedge shape. Then fold it in half and cut to make it equal.

As you can see by my photo, I didn't even cut it that straight, and that's ok. When I traced the pattern on the fabric, I tried cutting it straighter. But thats the wonder of sewing. You can correct your uneven lines. Ok well, at least you can in this project.

Then I put up my half surfboard looking pattern and traced it then flipped it over and made a mirror effect so it really does look like a surfboard pattern when you done. Ok, well a small surfboard, lol.

Then, cut 5 more just like this. I was able to make four wedges per blanket, leaving me with a half of blanket left for some other project. YAY!

Next sew each wedge together in 2 sets of 3's. Say what.. I know. Ok... sew one wedge to the other, making sure to sew only one side and right sides together.

Then, take another wedge and sew it to the second wedge. One thing I should add is not to sew the tips. Start sewing on the top of the side. I made this mistake :(

After you have sewn 3, then make another set of three. Do not attach them all together. You want two sets of three wedges.

Now that you have your two sets you can sew them together. I found though I had to sew the top together first then sew one side, and then go back to sew the other side, because you do want to leave big hole on the bottom to feed the bean bag in. Now if your making your own bean bag, well then the hole doesn't have to be that big.

Getting the bean bag into the hole is a bit tricky. I didn't make a big enough hole, but had my husband help me get it in, by re-positioning the styrofoam beans in the bag. I can't even explain it to you, but team work helped. Thanks Honey!

The hole was bigger than that, I promise (the photo just doesn't show it).

Then I sewed it up on the bottom. Now, I could have gotten fancy and done a zipper, or snaps, or something, but hey I just didn't care! I mean its not like anyone will ever know. In fact, its quite a crappy sew job underneath. If I wanted to make it look nice I could have carefully pinned them under and then together so it had a nice finish. I will say though its not easy to sew it once its on the bean bag. You will for sure need plenty of room to put your bean bag up on the same level as the sewing machine, or just sew it by hand. Eew no, takes too long. No thanks!

I love the way it looks. It looks so much better than my son's. And of course now he wants me to redo his again. Ughh, I'd have to be really bored to do that. Maybe if I get snowed in, lol. Ya right, I'll be cuddled up in my flannel sheets if that happens!

If your more of a hands on video type, here is where my inspiration came from. Not my video, but it helped get a visual on how to cut and sew it all :)

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